Tigger II: Eye of the Tigger

Tigger came for his second stay at “Camp Lintee Bean”. Tigger’s a VERY large (18 pound), VERY brave, and VERY smart cat. His first visit is summarized here.

Once again, Tigger was NOT happy to be here. Tigger loves “his” people, but basically hates everyone else. He was on Xanex for his stay. The sedative didn’t make him a lot easier to handle, and I was still unsuccessful attempting to test his blood sugar – but his appetite stayed good and there wasn’t the vomiting of last time, so it helped.

I went up before bed the first night and just used the shield (plastic safety gate) to open the door and turn the light out… he screamed at me and tried to jump over the shield to eat me.

The next morning I “geared up” (jeans, sweatshirt, shield… I had forgotten the gauntlet gloves in his room). I entered… he screamed and tried to jump over the shield… he couldn’t get over the shield after several attempts, and I was trying to “herd” him to the squeeze cage (covered with pillowcases so it would hopefully look reassuring). He decided since he couldn’t get over the shield, he would just collapse on the floor showing his belly.

So, I kind of “nudged” his collapsed body with the shield toward the squeeze cage and after much protesting and yelling, he went in and I could shut the door.

He managed to turn himself around facing the other direction, and yelled at me.

I gave him a few treats (reward for going in his squeeze cage), then scooped his litter box, etc. then “squeezed” the one cage wall closer to him to give him his insulin shot.

It was a battle of wills at first. He’d refuse to go in the cage, I’d herd him into a corner and nudge the cage closer until he had no choice, or use the cage to “catch” his head in his descent from a jump and nudge him in. One morning, he did manage to jump over the cage and bite my wrist but my BiteBuster extreme gauntlet gloves weren’t punctured. Worth every penny.

However, after a few days, it became routine. He’d make a few attempts to bite me, then go in the cage voluntarily. I regret being unable to test his blood sugar, but I managed best I could.